Beechdean putting in the miles at ELMS Prologue

After the disappointing news coming out of France earlier this week of the immediate withdrawal of the TDS Racing entered Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE form both the European Le Mans Series and the 24H of Le Mans itself it has been left to Andrew Howard's Beechdean Motorsport team to fly the flag with the AMR factory in the 2016 ACO series.

Only on Monday did the team formally confirm the return of the Andrew Howard, Jonny Adam and Alex MacDowall driver line up for the full season ELMS series - the driver line up that took second place first time out in the final race of the 2015 series at Estoril.


Having already tested the car together at the Official AMR Winter Test at Valencia, emphasis of the test in France this week with the year old GTE car was based upon getting credible track time (mainly for Howard) purely because of the widely reported driving dissimilarities between any GTE and GT3 platform, not to mention the continuing the new relationship between AMR and tyre supplier Dunlop.

Seeing a mixture of track conditions being experienced at the two day test by the attending teams Andrew Howard delivered the most number of laps of all completing 158 laps which is a distance higher that last years actual race at the Paul Ricard circuit.


Having a quick Twitter 'chat' with Howard after the completion of the test he confirmed that quick lap times were not of the essence for the team  - it was simply quality seat time for all, set up for the race at the circuit later in the year and to 'have a look at the opposition'. He concluded his messages by saying that 'it was going to be a very hard championship'.

The team will now regroup in readiness for round one of the series at Silverstone next month - a date that conflicts with other driver engagements for both Howard and Adam at the British GT opener at Brands Hatch. This situation will need further examination once the timetables for both events are published to see if (even if the controlling series organisers allows) the transiting between circuits and driving stints will even be possible.

Photo credits - Adrenal Media / Beechdean